The bizarre things I do to avoid getting the flu
One of my friends was standing at Schiphol on Thursday evening with beads of sweat down her back, the other was shivering in bed at five o'clock in the afternoon this weekend. And me? No flu. Ha! For a brief moment, I felt like a supernatural being immune to germs. Until now.
Last night I was sitting in a nice lazy chair going over my weekend in my mind when I suddenly realized it. One blocked nostril. It did kind of open up again when I tilted my head, but that didn't explain the continuous sneezing of that day. And the runny nose that followed.
At the first time I woke up last night, I felt my sinuses filling up. At the second time I woke up, a raw edge followed at the back of my throat. And when I officially woke up to the alarm clock, I had a headache. It's karma, you should never think you're immune and definitely not read anything about it on the internet. Just two weeks before I move and I have a whole house to pack. If anything is bad timing, it's the flu. I'm thinking about crawling into bed today because who knows, maybe I'll feel better tomorrow? God, no idea if preventive sleeping works. In a panic, I throw myself at the pharmacy and will stop by the vegetable jeweler for a bag of whatever seems healthy to me. Lemons, celery (?), oranges. God, suddenly I really crave oranges.
It's 3-1 for the flu
My searches on the worldwide web are now alternating between ‘bed frame with storage’ and ‘how the hell do I not get the flu’. Water apparently works wonders when you're sick or don't want to get sick. Liters, if possible. So now I have an assortment of water, tea, my Dopper, and coffee lined up on the table. Without coffee I just can't and hopefully the rest will wash the flu out of my body like Niagara Falls. In the meantime, I check my temperature every hour just to confirm that I don't have a fever. It helps, although I just warmed up from 36.8 to 37.6 degrees within half an hour. Hmmm, could it be?
The most important thing is to avoid other people with the flu. So I and my superior thoughts already went wrong there. Furthermore, I need to sleep a lot, which is complicated when you've been suffering from insomnia for a few months. I also shouldn't skip moving, while of course, I immediately skipped the gym when I got up this morning with a head like a comet. Damn! Although I did take a walk with my guest dog in the morning sun. Does that count? So far, the flu and I are kind of 3-1, in favor of the flu virus.
Medicinal support
That has to change. I already have my shopping list ready. Knobs of ginger, liters of chicken soup and especially loads of fruit and vegetables to get as much vitamin C in as possible. To support this whole process a bit medicinally, I then run to the drugstore for Citrosan powders, paracetamol strips, and whole bunches of Ibuprofen. It's what the internet prescribes, along with plenty of rest, little stress, and an overdose of sleep. Small problem, I don't have time for any of that.
Okay, okay, I'm really not a hypochondriac and due to my upbringing more of the caliber ‘we empty the pharmacy and go infect everyone at the office’, but with a move in two weeks, it's crucial that this annoying sniffling stays at a cold. Although I can now feel the muscle pain rising from the middle of my back towards my shoulders and my teeth hurt. But further, we just ignore that. Being sick is an emotion! Maybe I should also google which mindset works against the flu. You never know.
